1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for editing video data, a frame size of which is variable, such as video data coded in a Long GOP (Group Of Pictures) format. Also, the present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for editing video data, a frame size of which is variable, and recording file system information of an editing result.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the field of digital television broadcasting, a Long GOP format complying with MPEG-2 is employed for an encoding (compressing) format of video data. In the long GOP format, as is well known, a GOP consists of an I frame coded within a frame, and a P frame and a B frame coded by inter-frame prediction from a preceding frame or preceding and following frames, respectively.
The long GOP format has an advantage that a high compression rate can be realized by increasing the number of frames in one GOP. At the same time, however, since a picture is reproduced by a unit of a GOP, if an edition point designated by an editing operation is a frame in the middle of a GOP (the case becomes more frequent when the number of frames in a GOP is increased), a picture can not be reproduced by directly switching the picture at the edition point.
In related art, when cut-editing a file of video data coded in a Long GOP format, it is necessary to copy (relocate) a file to be edited into a recording medium in which the file to be edited is recorded.
Note that, although there is a reference disclosing an editing method in which only some frames within a GOP are replaced by other frames (for example Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 09-18830), there is not known a reference disclosing an editing method for cut-editing video data coded in a Long GOP format.